Monday, June 25, 2007

This wedding anniversary portrait is complete! I have left the background loosely defined and added more detail to Bret's suite and Tina's dress. My scanner is not large enough to capture the entire image but I managed to get most of it in the first image and the lower half in the second image. I hope that Tina will enjoy it!

Saturday, June 23, 2007

The background has been loosley set in and still requires some refinement but I want to keep it soft so that it does not compete for attention with the bride and groom. Bret's suit is starting to take shape. The pinstripes have been added to his jacket and will be blended in and more lights and darks will be added to create shape. I have exagerated some of the curves in the pinstripes to give the illusion of the shape of the jacket as if they were totally straight it would flatten his body rather than add depth.

More of the detail has been added to Tina's dress and feet as well but still more work is required to give more depth as well.

Thursday, June 21, 2007

The facial features are pretty much completed. I will leave the portrait for a bit and then make make some minor adjustments but I am happy with the resemblence now. The dress and suit still need more of the details added and her feet need a bit more refinement before I move onto the background.

Tuesday, June 19, 2007

I refined both Bret and Tina's features further, still more to go but the resemblance is getting much better. More work has been done on the dress, tie and her foot. Her mouth and nose need to be adjusted further to get the angle and her teeth correct, I will fix these tomorrow and finish up their faces before moving on to finish up their suit and dress, then the background!

Friday, June 15, 2007

The darkest layers of graphite pencil have been added to the portrait for Bret's suit. The graphite still needs to settle more and I will keep adding layers to both his suit and Tina's dress allowing time for each layer to settle.

Thursday, June 14, 2007

Had a marathon session and blocked in most of her dress. Still need to add more details. I will draw Bret's suit next to establish the darkest tones and allow the graphite to settle into the paper and then go back to Tina's dress.

Wednesday, June 13, 2007

I have done a few minor tweaks to her face but still much more is needed to achieve the resemblence. I will leave the faces for a bit though and work on the rest of the portrait to allow the graphite to settle in and so that the final details are crisp. I have drawn in the shape of her arm using B graphite pencil and will move onto her dress shortly.

Monday, June 11, 2007

till lots of tweaks to made to the bride as well but the main features have been blocked in. Several layers of H, B and HB graphite have been used to draw her skin and hair. The graphite pencil is then blended, features redrawn and blended again removing highlights where needed. Each pass further refines the features as the graphite absorbs into the paper. I will likely draw both of their faces to near completion and then move onto the rest of the portrait and then finish up with their faces again to keep the features crisp. As their faces are smaller than I generally work with I find that I am almost working in reverse for this portrait. Laying the features down and then removing excess graphite to refine their features more.

Friday, June 08, 2007

I have drawn in the rough details of Bret's face and am building and defining his features as I go. Many details are off at this point as I refine them as I go. His eyebrow and goatee have been set in but need adjusting as well. The actual faces are much smaller than I am used to drawing which is a bit of a challenge so I am using B graphite rather than 2B to keep the details more crisp. HB graphite pencil is used for the tighter details and both have been blended and reapplied many times to build up depth.

This is kind of the ugly stage of the portrait for me as many things are so off that they scream at me but by the next update things will be taking shape nicely :)

Thursday, June 07, 2007

This is the graphite sketch for a commission that will be a gift for a first wedding anniversary. I was not able to capture all of the portrait with my scanner as it is 11x14 and my scanner...even though it says it scans A4...seems to not want to go larger than 8.5 x 11 argh, may be time for a new scanner ;)

I have transferred the drawing onto the watercolor paper and have darkened the outline of the bride and groom with HB graphite pencil. The background is hard to see right now but is sand and rocks with will be loosely drawn in.

Sunday, June 03, 2007

Well she is complete! This was a tricky one as several reference photos were used to create a portrait of Ann as each contained something needed for the expression that her friend was trying to capture. I am quite pleased with the results and I hope that Ann will be too!

My scanner is not large enough to fit the full sheet so the word at the bottom is Understanding. Thetheme that we attempted to convey in this portrait is her striking and natural beauty, grace, a sense of complete peace, comfort and happiness. I think we achieved it!